BRIDGEWATER – This time next year, students across the state could be preparing for Massachusetts Geography Week.

Two geography professors from Bridgewater State University are promoting a bill that would designate the first week of April as Massachusetts Geography Week and create a commission to investigate and study the status of geography education in the state.

This is the second time the bill has come before the Legislature. Bridgewater professors James Hayes-Bohanan and Vernon Domingo pushed for the bill with the Massachusetts Geographic Society with the help of Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, last session.

“This year, I was frankly ready to call it quits on the whole concept, but Sen. Brewer’s staff recommended that we try again and they gave us some insight on how to improve our likelihood of success,” said Hayes-Bohanan.

The second effort has appeared to pay off.

The bill has attracted 18 sponsors so far, including several local legislators and the Legislature’s only geographer, Rep. Todd Smola, R-Palmer, who received his bachelor of science degree in geography and regional planning from Westfield State College.

The bill has also received favorable recommendations from the Joint Committee on Education and Senate Ways and Means Committee. It is currently sitting in the House Ways and Means Committee awaiting a recommendation.

“I’m personally feeling more confident,” said Hayes-Bohanan. “We’re getting a lot more positive feedback from legislators, but we’ve learned what makes a bill go or no-go is really hard to predict.”

Hayes-Bohanan added that the bill addresses a subject that is currently only taught in the fourth- and seventh-grades across the commonwealth.

“The reason we asked for it to be filed is we really have a lack of geography literacy,” said Hayes-Bohanan. “The very simple reason for that is it’s not taught much.”

However, Hayes-Bohanan acknowledged that the subject has an image that it must overcome.

“Modern geography is really the study of where things are, why they are there, how they connect and why they matter,” said Hayes-Bohanan.

The field has only grown with the advancement of geo-technology, which encompasses processes from satellite imagery to items that bring the subject a little closer to home.

“The GPS on the dash looks like magic, but it isn’t. There’s geography behind it,” said Hayes-Bohanan.